Laws
(With further amendments and supplements)
Adopted on
November 6, 2000
Law of the Republic of Armenia on Protection of Economic Competition
Chapter 5: Unfair Competition
ARTICLE 11. UNFAIR COMPETITION1. Any entrepreneurial activity or conduct conflicting this Law or business circulation traditions, breaking the principles of fairness, i.e. honesty, equity, verity and impartiality among competitors or between the latter and consumers shall be deemed as unfair competition.
2. Unfair competition shall be prohibited.
3. Any interested person, including consumer, who has incurred damage due to unfair competition shall be entitled to terminate unfair competition by applying to the Commission or court. This right shall also be reserved for organizations empowered to defend the interested persons’ economic interests.
2. Unfair competition shall be prohibited.
3. Any interested person, including consumer, who has incurred damage due to unfair competition shall be entitled to terminate unfair competition by applying to the Commission or court. This right shall also be reserved for organizations empowered to defend the interested persons’ economic interests.
2. In the context of this Article, confusion may be caused in particular with respect to:
a) Trademark and service mark, whether registered or not;
b) Trade name;
c) Appearance of products, for instance, industrial design, whether registered or not, packaging, color or any other non-functional features;
d) Civil circulation participants, products, other means of identification, for instance, business symbols, signs or letters substituting words, slogans;
e) Types of product presentation, including advertisement, uniform, product delivery style;
f) Use of names of celebrities, as well as popularity or reputation of recognized characters from fiction or art to foster product consumption demand.
2. In the context of the present Article, discrediting may occur while implementing measures to facilitate the promotion or dissemination of products, in particular with respect to:
- Production process;
- Suitability of products for certain purpose;
- Quality, quantity or other features;
- Offer and delivery conditions;
- Price or its computation method.
2. In the context of this Article, misleading may be caused while implementing measures to facilitate the promotion or advertisement of products, in particularly it may be caused with respect to geographic origin of a product as well as the peculiarities specified in Part 2 of Article 13 hereof. Any unjustified exaggeration of the product quality, the failure to provide relevant information regarding the quality, quantity or other features, which may lead to a false impression (misinformation), forgery with regard to the personality of an advertiser, shall be deemed as misleading.
(Article 14 was amended by #HO-107-N Law adopted on 22.02.2007)
2. In the context of this Article, the damage to reputation or goodwill of economic entity may result from impairment of reputation or goodwill connected with the objects listed in Part 2 of Article 12 hereof.
Impairment of reputation or goodwill shall mean the diminution of distinguishing features or advertising significances (meaning) specified in Part 2 of Article 12 hereof, particularly when applying a sign similar or identical to the registered or well-known trademark of a certain product on completely different products.
(Article 15 was amended by #HO-107-N Law adopted on 22.02.2007)
a) they, as a whole or by accurate inter-arrangement and integrity of their parts, are completely unknown or not easily accessible to persons usually dealing with such information;
b) they have certain actual or possible commercial value due to being unknown to third persons, but legitimate grounds for their easy accessibility are lacking;
c) their legitimate owner, whether a natural person or legal entity, has undertaken reasonable steps to retain the confidentially of information under existing circumstances, such steps being expressed in the form of signing a relevant contract and (or) ensuring its conditions, initiating other preventive steps, maintaining them on identification information-carriers in the form of documents, electronic files, video and audio records, items embodying such data, etc.
The subject matter of undisclosed information may be production methods, chemical formulas, drawings, test samples, product sale and distribution methods, contract types, business plans, details of contractual prices, professional activity fields (profiles) of consumers, advertising strategy, lists of suppliers or clients, computer software, databases, etc..
Materials and data collected through administrative observations enclosed in reports shall not be deemed as undisclosed information.
2. Any entrepreneurial activity or conduct which may lead to acquisition, use and disclosure of undisclosed information without the consent of its lawful owner or in violation of traditions of business circulation shall be deemed as an act of unfair competition.
3. The rights stated in Part 3 of Article 11 hereof shall arise irrespective of any formalities (registration, issuance of certificate, etc.) performed with respect to undisclosed information and shall be effective as long as conditions stipulated by Part 1 of this Article are met.
4. In the context of this Article, following methods of acquisition, use and disclosure of undisclosed information shall be deemed as violation of business circulation traditions:
a) Industrial or business espionage or compulsion of such;
b) Breach, dissolution of or compulsion to a contract related with undisclosed information;
c) Breach of or compulsion to confidentiality;
d) Acquisition of undisclosed information by a third person who was aware or could have been aware that such acquisition would assume conducting activities specified in aforementioned Clauses.
5. Use of undisclosed information shall mean its application in entrepreneurial activity, as well as the introduction into economic circulation of products received or processed due to its application.
6. Disclosure of undisclosed information shall mean its publication, as well as its transfer to any other person who, by keeping it in secret, may gain tangible or other profit.
7. Any entrepreneurial activity or conduct shall be deemed as an act of unfair competition, if it constitutes or is followed by:
a) Unfair commercial use of pharmaceutical or agricultural chemical products received by means of using new chemical mixture, composition or compound, which were submitted to the authorized body for approval and were originated as a result of unfair commercial use of data of tests involving considerable efforts or of other undisclosed data;
b) Disclosure of data stated in Part “a” of this Clause, other than cases when it is necessary for the protection of public interests or when guarantees of data protection against their unfair commercial use are already in place.
In the context of this Part, unfair commercial use of data shall mean their sale to other persons, their use to produce identical or similar product, etc.
8. If the person illegally using undisclosed information has acquired it from a person not entitled to disseminate (publish) it, of which fact the user was unaware or was not obliged to be aware (honest acquirer), the legal owner of undisclosed information shall be entitled to claim compensation for damage caused to him/her as a result of using undisclosed information starting from the moment when the honest acquirer has become aware that the use of such information is illegal.
9. Taking into consideration the expenses incurred by an honest acquirer in connection with the use of undisclosed information, the court may permit its further use until compensation of sustained expenses.
10. Any person who has independently and legally acquired data constituting the content of undisclosed information, shall be entitled to use them irrespective of the rights of the relevant undisclosed data owner, and shall not bear any responsibility for its use before the latter.
11. Legal owner of undisclosed information may, based on a relevant contract, wholly or partially provide the data constituting its content to another person.
12. The person possessing undisclosed information under a relevant contract shall be obliged to undertake appropriate measures to keep its confidentiality, and as such, on equal terms with the legal owner of undisclosed information, shall have the right to protect it from illegal use by a third party. Unless otherwise provided by the contract, the obligation of the person possessing undisclosed information to keep the confidentiality thereof shall survive the validity term of the license agreement, should the information be still considered undisclosed.
CHAPTER 5.1
STATE AID
ARTICLE 16-1. STATE AID AND ITS PROHIBITION
1. Within the context of this Law, the state aid shall be deemed any aid (including financial means, such as assistance, credit, borrowing, property, privileges or other conditions) provided by the government, state or local government body, state organization or organization with state participation to a concrete economic entity or a certain group of economic entities.
2. The state aid which directly or indirectly leads or may lead to the restriction, prevention or prohibition of competition in any product market, shall be prohibited, except for cases when the stated aid is envisaged by the Law.
3. This Article shall not cover the state aids which are directed at protection of the environment, solution of problems of social nature, compensation of damages caused by natural calamities or other exceptional cases, discharging of obligations stipulated by the Law or international contract.
4. The body (organization) having initiated the provision of the state aid, or the economic entity having applied for such aid, shall prior to provision of the state aid or applying for such aid be entitled to apply to the Commission to receive its conclusion.
5. The economic entity which has received prohibited state aid shall be obliged to return it within the timeframe defined by the Commission.
(Chapter 5.1 was supplemented by #HO-107-N Law adopted on 22.02.2007)
